Barcelona reject offer and decide Vitor Roque future | OneFootball

Barcelona have decided to allow Brazilian forward Vitor Roque to leave on loan this summer, despite an offer for a permanent sale from Sporting CP. The 19-year-old is expected to play for Real Betis next season.

According to Marca, Barcelona have rejected Sporting’s offer, and are finalising the details of a deal with Betis. During the last few weeks there has been an intense internal debate over whether to allow him to leave on loan, and risk his value dropping more, or try to sell him this summer. The flipside clearly being that Roque could raise his cachet on loan, or show that Barcelona had been short-sighted with a sale.

Sporting had offered a deal of around €20m plus just over €10m in variables, but Barcelona still believe that Roque has the potential to play for the Blaugrana one day, thus deciding they were better off keeping control of his future. It remains to be seen if Betis will have an option to buy Roque, with previously reports mentioning the potential for Los Verdiblancos to buy 50% of his rights for €15-20m.

There is no expectation that the final details of the deal cause talks to break down, with the decision taken for Roque to feature at the Benito Villamarin. Betis are expected to pay most of his salary, report Relevo.

Barcelona spent €30m on Roque this January, but after little more than 300 minutes in the first team, in which he scored twice, both Xavi Hernandez and Hansi Flick decided that he was not of use to them. So far they have not had to pay any of the €31m in variables for Roque. Real Betis President Angel Haro gave an update on Roque on Tuesday morning, saying the Brazilian was excited by Betis’ project, but that they were exploring two further alternatives to Roque, one of which is thought to be Borussia Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko.